Fairy-tale girls 'don't have happy endings'

By Sarah Womack, Social Affairs Correspondent

12:01AM BST 22 Apr 2005

Girls who read fairy tales, such as Cinderella or Beauty and the Beast, are more likely to stay in destructive relationships as adults believing that things will turn out for the best, an academic claims.

Susan Darker-Smith, 32, a psychotherapist at the University of Derby in Buxton, said victims of domestic violence had told her they believed that "if their love was strong enough, they could change their partner's behaviour" and many identified directly with characters in fairy tales.

"Out of sixty seven women I spoke to, between the ages of 16 and 52, sixty one said they thought they could change their partner through compassion, love and understanding,'' she said.

"Women then started talking about fairy tales and characters within them when I asked them if there was a particular character they identified with."

"A lot of women said they felt like Cinderella, they had these feelings of powerlessness and submissiveness. Cinderella is very downtrodden and rescued by a prince, which means she is incapable of saving herself.

"Or women say they feel like Beauty in Beauty and the Beast, where the beast transforms from an ugly monster when she, the heroine, loves him enough."

Miss Darker-Smith said she was not advocating that parents stopped reading fairy tales to their children, but they should be more aware of their impact.

"Children who overly identify with certain stories are more likely to develop submissive behaviour." she said.

The journal Gender and Society reported that the most popular bedtime story choices for girls were Cinderella and Rapunzel, while boys were more likely to listen to Paddington Bear and Thomas the Tank Engine.